A top Republican has accused the Biden administration of shrugging off an assassination attempt against Donald Trump, and emboldening Iran to kill him in the process.
Florida congressman Michael Waltz said the White House is sending a message that there are "no consequences" for targeting Trump, who recently survived an assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania.
A Pakistani man was recently charged in New York in an unrelated Iranian plot to kill Trump, whose name wasn't mentioned in the Justice Department's indictment.
“The Department of Justice, when they unveiled the indictment, didn’t even name Trump as the target. They tried to soft-pedal it and just say, oh, it was a politician. So this wasn’t an isolated incident in Butler, Pa," Waltz told Fox News' Sunday Morning Futures.
Trump angered the Iranian regime by ordering the assassination of its top general Qassem Soleimani in 2020. While Trump held Iran "accountable," Waltz said, Biden and Kamala Harris have taken a softer approach.
“He held them accountable. And you overlay that with, how has Biden and Harris treated Iran? Well, Iran knows that they’re sympathizers,” he argued.
The Iranian threats have continued, with reports that Trump's presidential campaign was breached by Iranian hackers.
"These plots from Iran are ongoing. And when Biden says nothing, Harris says nothing, the DOJ tries to bury it, what message does Iran get? They get that we can keep trying to take Trump out and have no consequences,” Waltz said.
“They tried to hack his campaign or did hack his campaign this week. They’re trying to kill him. And we know from the intelligence community Iran doesn’t want Trump back,” he added.
During a wide-ranging discussion with Elon Musk on X, Trump talked about the assassination attempt in Butler and the importance of having a strong president who is feared by America's enemies.
"Iran had no money for Hamas, no money for Hezbollah and no money for any instruments of terror," Trump said of his administration's aggressive sanctions on Iran.
The FBI is investigating the hacking of Trump's campaign, as well as the assassination attempt in Butler.
The gunman, Thomas Matthew Crooks, shot at Trump from a rooftop from less than 200 yards away. The bullet grazed Trump's ear as he turned his head.
